WE'VE already worried that Linux had adopted the equivalent of Tivoization. Now we find the threat of DRM in the most ubiquitous kernel of free operating systems, so we wanted to alert readers.
Ts'o's message is worth reading in its entirety, but the basic point is that TXT enables Hollywood (or another DRM-happy entity) to take away some of the basic functionality of the hardware in order to preserve their "rights". Essentially, this takes away users' rights to protect companies' perceived or actual rights. The truly nightmarish scenario is one where one cannot do anything on a computer that isn't contained in a signed (presumably proprietary and closed source) application, running on a signed operating system. TXT could enable just that kind of functionality.
But, there are some scenarios (Ts'o mentions medical record access) under which TXT could be beneficial to the user. Other devices (voting machines and ATMs are the standard example) could benefit from TXT as well. Should kernel hackers stand in the way of adding this code to the kernel simply because it can be used for ill? The consensus, from the extremely limited subset of the kernel development community participating in the discussion, seems to be "no".
Comments
twitter
2009-06-02 03:39:33
Roy Schestowitz
2009-06-02 08:40:00
notzed
2009-06-02 03:36:55
Linux is becoming almost like a prorietary platform anyway. Partially because of the license, and partially because of the constantly changing apis, and the allowing of binary blobs and drivers (and particularly because the pc hardware is just so fucked to start with, and needs so much code just to talk to the hardware).
I've had more problems than ever lately too - instabilities and hardware not working, so there are perhaps some issues starting to raise themselves. Rather than 'enough eyes make any bugs shallow', perhaps it is 'enough eyes make even crap code work eventually'.
Will
2009-06-02 01:19:33
Yuhong Bao
2009-06-07 07:52:11
Trivia: One of the parts of the xnu kernel that is designed for DRM is PT_DENY_ATTACH, which is basically a copy of Vista's Protected Processes. Often mentioned in the context of, but not limited to, DTrace. But since xnu is open source, it can easily patched out. That made me wonder about the politics inside Apple that are going on relating to open source.
Roy Schestowitz
2009-06-02 08:01:04
Needs Sunlight
2009-06-02 07:56:52
http://kerneltrap.org/node/6497
Yuhong Bao
2009-06-04 06:36:17